Books as Weapons? Identifying Strategies of the New Right's Literature Policy

Abstract

This thesis examines the literature policy of the German New Right with a particular focus on its literary strategies of canonization, appropriation and instrumentalization. Building on theoretical discussions of cultural hegemony and intellectualization, it analyzes how new right publishers and networks, especially Antaios and Jungeuropa, mobilize literature as a medium of ideological dissemination and cultural positioning. Through paratexts, publisher programs, podcasts and reviews, the thesis explores how the New Right constructs narratives of belonging, frames the state as an adversary, and cultivates a discourse of resistance. Exemplifying case studies highlight the dual role of explicitly new right texts and works originally published outside new right contexts, which are discursively reinterpreted and integrated into a new right literary canon. Special attention is given to Antaios’ canonization project “Hundert Jahre, hundert Romane”, which exemplifies the New Right’s efforts to establish cultural authority by appropriating both ‘high’ and popular literature. The thesis demonstrates how the New Right uses and frames literature (and language) to negotiate cultural authority as well as advance its political goals and it considers potential counter-strategies.